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User blog:Daburu/Gekiha Dan/Brave thoughts on rewatch
Somehow, I managed to rewatch both SGD and Brave in an uncomfortably short span recently. There was quite a bit of wailing involved. The short review: they're still really good. Really, really good. SGD has shot up to my second or third fave series in the franchise. They don't make 'em like this anymore. If you haven't seen these, you should. Anyway, the following is just terribly structured rambling with plenty of spoilers. Let's start things off with a measure of despair, since it wouldn't be Dan universe without it. Did you know one of the first things Dan says in Shounen Gekiha is "Arigatou gozaimashita. Ii batoru deshita"? Way to re-break my heart in the first five minutes. *Death count (Gekiha Dan): 3 *Death count (Brave): 6 (7? I want to believe that he's alive though... ;_;) *Bladra death count (I may have missed 2 or 3, but these numbers are at least close.) **Total: 20 dead **Destroyed: 8 **Depleted: 12 **Survived: a handful There's so much more I understand on a deep level now that I've worked with flavor. For example, they explain that "core appears when desired" in the Otherworld. The war that killed Yuuki and Kajitsu's past selves was undoubtedly the one described in Otherworld Records. Speaking of, I'm 90% sure Otherworld King and Lolo are different people now. The 10% doubt arises from Leon's worship of him. "Sun" is a pretty significant point in Gekiha. I thought that it was only Sword Eyes where it mattered, but apparently I just overlooked this whole thing the first time through? Anyway, the sun wasn't even present in SGD. I thought this was gonna be a one-off when Pantera first mentioned it in the mid-20s, but no, it comes back. Otherworld King claims to be Otherworld's sun. Mother Core itself is kind of supposed to be the sun. It's also supposed to be Earth, which is also the seventh realm of the Otherworld. When Otherworld King uses Gai-Asura after he becomes Mother Core's bearer, it starts out as Phantom and then turns into Earth somehow. It's totally illegal in-game, but from a flavor perspective it makes perfect sense (see: the Final Chapter drama). In Brave, Earth was supposedly created after a Zodiac war (Constellation Saga), which kind of conflicts with the Mother Core thing. Then there's the bit where they explain how the Horizon Ladders are the replacements for the symbols, and the symbols are meant to become the suns of each world... Which brings us to another topic. There's a hell of a lot of attempted sacrifice even in Gekiha. The bearers of core's light can return to Earth literally any time they want. But Dan decides to stay for Zungurii. Much later, he's willing to offer his symbol so that it can serve as a sun. In fact, all of the bearers are willing. They are well aware that this action could very likely cost them their lives. I'd mention the part where Dan offers himself as tribute to bring back Kajitsu too, but that turned out to be part of a different plan. These kids are 9-16 years old and they have so little to live for. Mai loves the spotlight, but she's gotten unwanted attention. The very first time we see her, she's taking out revenge on a creeper. Clackey says in Brave that even if he went back, there wouldn't be any family waiting for him (I cry every time). Kenzo is an absolute enigma. He's got ties to some kind of extremely rich and politically influential family for sure. How's he feel about his family? We're all aware of Suzuri and Yuuki. And Dan? There's a flashback scene showing Dan at an amusement park. He's all alone. We never see Dan with any parents or other friends. Then there are actual arcs and subplots in Gekiha, a far cry from the current structures. Several distinct arcs come into focus: Horizon Ladder, Blue World tournament, protecting Kajitsu, saving Mai, and then endgame. There's a long-term goal for the series, but there's also consistently a short-term goal for the next few episodes. In the Blue World's tournament arc, rather than making it all about the battles, each episode had a subplot. The audience know that one of the main characters is gonna make it to the last bracket, the writers know we know, so they put something else in for our suspense. For example, Suzuri getting possessed was not that plot-relevant, but it was way more entertaining than just making it a Suzuri vs Kenzo ep. The one stretch in the entire 100 episodes that made me lose interest was the Prison Squad arc in Brave. 2/3s of the members were one-off annoying jerkwads. Their designs were memorable, but not much else. This arc was blatant product placement. With the penalty being death, it was pretty obvious after the first battle that the heroes would have to win every time anyway. Other things that Brave could have improved on: Lucretia, Gaspard, and Zazie's twin underlings. They were all fairly important, but never got a moment in the spotlight. To be fair, they were busy developing other characters, but I still would have loved for Lucretia to get a little personality. Also, Dan vs Izaz was surprisingly underwhelming the second time around. I misinterpreted and misremembered quite a bit of both series, to be honest. For one, I completely forgot that Gekiha is actually about colonialism. I remembered Brave as a hunt for the Zodiacs, but there was actually very little searching on screen. The focus was on the political intrigue, not the grunt work of collecting. But most importantly, I finally got the real implied fate of Yuuki. When the bearers of core's light were blamed for everything going wrong, Yuuki caved and betrayed the bearers by siding with the public. That's why he isn't in Brave. On the other hand, I'm still pretty sure Izaz's pretty face backstory is a euphemism. There's a lot more I could gush on about with character development, but I feel like that's easier to see. We all know how excellent this show is, I'm just remarking on things that stood out after a second time. Like Otherworld King foreshadowing Brave when he says "without me, there is no future". Or the bullet motif in Dan, which I'm not sure is a vital point but is most definitely present. To conclude: Dan universe is objectively one of the most stunning things out there and we're lucky to be witnesses to it. Category:Blog posts